Monday, July 22, 2013

Liebster award, Memory Monday Linky, & Guest blogger still needed

Okay, I'm accepting this Liebster award. For some reason every time I see the word Liebster I think of lobster... kinda funny. I have been nominated a few times now, but I have always tried to graciously pass because I want my blog to be filled with math stuff only, but I guess it's fun to get to know a little about whose writing all these math posts from time to time. I want to say a special shout out to the people who have given me a Leibster before... Kristen at http://kristenhead.blogspot.com (a blogger I met through the A to Z Blogging Challenge in April), Melissa at http://creationsbymrsmouse.blogspot.com/, and now Amy at Griffith's 3rd Grade Garden. I don't really enjoy these chain type of things, but I do want to support new teacher bloggers!

These are the Liebster rules... I say, follow what you want from this list. No need to make too much work for yourself : )1. List 11 facts about yourself.2. Answer the 11 questions given to you.3. Ask 11 new questions for the bloggers you nominate for the award.4. Choose up to 11 up-and-coming blogs (with less than 200 followers) to nominate.5. Go to each blogger’s page and let them know about the award.6. Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog.

I follow SO many blogs it is hard to go through and find the ones that only have 200 or less followers but I found some, but here's some nice newer bloggers from my bloglovin' list : )

I don't think I could come up with 11 random things about me....but here are the answers to the questions from Amy

1. How many years have you taught? I actually only taught one year formally, but I have been teaching my kids ever since they were born--so 12 years : )

2. What was your worst subject in school? Social Studies/history. I love individuals and learning about individuals, but societies as a whole was never really my thing and I had trouble memorizing facts and keeping dates straight.

3. What is your favorite thing about teaching? When a child catches the love of learning!

4. What is your favorite thing about summer? The long daylight hours to spend time with my kids. I feel like I have more energy when the sun it up.

5. Why did you decide to start blogging? I wanted to get to know other teacher bloggers so when my books get published I'll have an audience. It's also a good creative outlet for me : )

6. Do you have any pets? Tell us about them. We finally got a dog a year ago. Lucky is an energetic terrier mix : ) A picture of him is in my math activities with dogs post.

7. What advice would you pass on to a new teacher that you WISH someone had told you? Since I haven't been in the classroom in quite a while, I'm not sure. It would probably be 'Don't beat yourself up if you don't get everything done, take things one step at a time as you do your best.'

I was the youngest of five kids and my next brother up from me was four years older than me. I wanted to go to school SO much each time my brothers and sisters went off to school. Eventually, my mom decided she would do a little math lesson for me each day (I don't think she felt confident on teaching me reading, so we just did math). So, since I was three and four I was thinking about math and I enjoyed adding and subtracting numbers.

Then another milestone was in first grade when my teacher had a fractions poster. I don't remember if she taught with it much. It was posted in the room after she gave a hand-on lesson with cutting a strip of paper. I found fractions intriguing and I could tell that 2/8 equals 1/4 or 4/16 since I was six years old just from having my teacher do that one lesson and how she left the poster up for the rest of the year.

Fast forward a few years to fourth grade when other students were having a hard time understanding and remembering their times tables, the teacher let me be a tutor for small groups of my classmates. I was able to show them arrays and helped them understand the concept of multiplication. That is when I knew I wanted to be a teacher.

Since I was young I have loved to learn and I think a lot of kids start off that way. As teachers it's a big job to teach, inspire, and motivate, but it's worth every effort : )

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I still need a guest blogger for a second grade math post in September if anyone wants to take the spot. Just fill out the form on my Guest blogger tab.

4 comments:

LOVED the story, so agree the inspiration is what keeps things going both for the kids and the teachers in school. Not everyone can be a good teacher, I believe you really need to love it, clearly that shows in what you do...pretty forward thinking too, knowing what you wanted to do at such a young age.